what’s happening in my house these days

We participated in International Walk to School Day here in our town today. Over the past few weeks, the Safe Routes to School committee at our elementary school has prepped for this event; we worked with students to make posters, promoted the event all over the school and arranged for healthy snacks and Safe Routes patches to hand out as walkers, bikers and carpoolers rocked up to school.

Here’s a shot from the path to school. That lady on my xtracycle? Not me. It’s one of our fantastic PE teachers. I rode to school early this morning with my bike completely loaded up with a box of granola samples kindly donated by our local Whole Foods, a huge tupperware of orange slices, serving trays, you name it. The minute I arrived, I saw our PE teacher, who commandeered my bike to chase down the principal, who was heading up the bike path to meet the crowd of walkers heading in from the community center. I didn’t get to see the path when things were going full tilt, but I heard it was mayhem. Woohoo!

Here are some riders filling in one section of our bike racks. It’s tricky to take shots without any faces in them – thanks for this one, Tom!

The bike racks filled up pretty quickly…

Check out that sweet minty green bike! The black one behind it doesn’t look that fancy in this shot, but it’s got a very cool industrial rear rack. Having good equipment sure makes the decision to ride an easier one.

In the end, we handed out 270 badges to students who walked, rolled and carpooled to school this morning. Not a bad turnout!

3 comments for now

3 Responses to “iWalk 2009”

Nice photos (if I do say so). Who took these babies, they’re awesome!!!!!

I’ve been thinking more about some of the feedback you overheard about riding to school (e.g., it’s hard because….). Maybe you could put together a post called, “How to get your kid’s and their stuff to school without a car”. I’d like to see a list of the ways you get all the objects back and forth.

Did you read my rant on facebook? The Saratoga School board has forbidden elementary and middle school kids to walk or bike to school! They even had a state trooper greet one of the offenders (and his mom who rides with him) to ‘remind’ him of the rule. How they think that is in any way legal, I don’t know…Aaron wants to know how the kids are supposed to get from the bus to the school.

Luckily, Schenectady had a great turn out for the walk to school day- thankfully that’s our district.